Yoshi Genki
Yoshi Genki is a junior at Lake Ontario High and classmate of several former TDI contestants in LIFE AS AN EX-REALITY TV SHOW CONTESTANT. Cheerful and optimistic, if occasionally a bit naïve, Yoshi loves to brighten up people’s days through his various creative endeavors. Personality Yoshi comes across as the most mellow, optimistic and amicable member of his group of friends. Though occasionally shy around new people, he is more than willing to accept anyone as a new friend and is always eager to try new things, being active both at his school and within his community. At last check, his various commitments include being president of the school drama club and a member of the Ontario Thespian Society (he has a deep passion for all aspects of theater), co-founder of Lake Ontario High’s World Culture Club, saxophonist in the school band, active volunteer throughout the community, skilled tennis player, devoted eldest sibling to four younger brothers and a younger sister, ballroom dancer, member of the debate team and honor roll student. He always sees the glass half-full and is never without a smile on his face, though he is also rather naïve, particularly as to the less-than-cheery workings of the high school social environment. Among his peers, he is best known for being involved in “almost literally everything” and talking the ear off of anyone he considers a friend. His upbeat personality often puts him at opposite foils with his friend Lucas, though he appears not to notice or care. Biography Early Life Yoshi was the first of six children, elder brother of four boys and one girl, which led to him working hard to be a good role model and responsible person throughout his life. His family was very supportive, always cheering him on in his various, constantly changing endeavors. He has also been a classmate and neighbor to Han since the two were in elementary school, which may have influenced his cheerful yet somewhat meek personality (a foil to Han’s irritating boisterousness). He is also very proud of and curious about his Japanese culture, and at one point attempted to learn Japanese so he could converse with his native grandparents and other relatives; however, he is poor at learning languages, so he only managed to pick up on a few basic phrases. LIFE AS AN EX-REALITY TV SHOW CONTESTANT Yoshi appears as an unnamed Asian student in the first chapter of EX, being in a different class than Gwen and subsequently being seen only during her homeroom, talking nonstop to Lucas, and at lunch, where he remains quiet during the confrontation between Heather and Christin. He is formally introduced in the second chapter, displaying his naïveté when he admits to being confused over Heather’s “overreaction” the previous day, and again at lunch when Heather “accidently” spills milk on Christin’s seat, which he sums up as Heather being “really mean”. He makes a brief appearance in chapter three, watching as Han steals Samantha’s purse to smack Lucas across the head with, only for Samantha to take it back and beat Han with it, commenting simply, “That’s not nice.” He does not appear in chapter four or five. Other Appearances Yoshi is one of the competitors in the series Total Drama Fame, displaying his cheerful naïveté as he greets Chris and his fellow competitors. He is assigned to the Killer Thespians, and for unknown reasons chooses to room with Ezekiel. Later he optimistically claims that the show’s first challenge should be something relatively easy, only to be quickly proven wrong. During the challenge, he jumps from the plane to earn a point, but his team ultimately ends up losing. Yoshi receives a golden record at the elimination ceremony, earning him safety. Yoshi was also a competitor in the short-lived Total Drama Disney. He is assigned to team Donald, and during the challenge makes the mistake of urging an irritated Han to calm down by the name “Hannah”, angering her greatly. Though he loses the challenge, Yoshi moves on in the competition. Relationships Friends and Classmates At the time EX begins, Yoshi is already established to be friends with Christin McClean, Hannah “Han” Lotta, Samantha Clover, Lucas Cattivo, and Andrea Libro. Of these, he is usually seen interacting with Han and Lucas; he and Lucas play opposite foils throughout the series, Lucas being the pessimistic “straight man” and Yoshi the cheerful but naïve “dumb guy”. Notably, Yoshi is the only one of Han’s friends that she is not seen actively antagonizing, possibly because she has known him for so long. Antagonists Like the rest of his friend group, Yoshi is ostracized by Heather, Daisy Fleur and Emily Linghun; however, all three have less of a vendetta against him personally and more an issue with the people he associates himself with. In fact, one can imagine Daisy and Emily being good friends with Yoshi were it not for their association with Heather and his with Christin and company. Gallery File:Yoshi.jpg|Yoshi's original image. File:Sunshine's Incomplete TDF Logo.jpg|An incomplete logo sketch for Total Drama Fame. Yoshi can be seen at right between DJ and Ezekiel. File:Yoshi and Lucas Redesigns.jpg|Colored pencil redesign of Yoshi. Trivia *Yoshi is of Japanese descent, as can be seen in his last name, Genki, the Japanese word for “cheer”. Furthermore, “Yoshi” is a component of several Japanese given names and surnames; therefore, the name Yoshi might be a nickname taken from his full Japanese name. **In spite of his heritage, the charm on his necklace in his original image is the Chinese character “jīn”, meaning “gold”. This was done because the inspiration for Yoshi commonly wore a gold necklace with a charm of a Japanese character, but the authoress could not remember what the character was, and because she knows some Chinese, simply chose a fitting character to substitute. The character is written the same in Japanese as it is in Chinese, however; the pronunciation is simply different between languages. *Yoshi is actually nearsighted, but he wears contact lenses. *Yoshi received the first golden record in Total Drama Fame. *In his new image, Yoshi’s hair is longer and styled in a bowl cut, his shirt is a V-neck, his necklace is no longer visible (as it looked odd in combination with the V-neck shirt), and he wears long khaki shorts rather than pants. He is also shown holding several papers and his saxophone case, and appears slightly shorter and with a squarer face. *In his audition tape for Total Drama Fame, Yoshi is implied not to be extremely well-liked among his peers, or at least the more popular/jock crowd. When he cites his popularity as one of the reasons he should be chosen for the show, a person bluntly states that he is not popular, and at the end of the tape someone throws a football at the back of Yoshi’s head, though he laughs it off and naïvely regards it as a good-natured teasing.